Book Reports

The basis of modern storytelling can be traced to mythology. The stories from ancient civilizations are timeless—Icarus, Sisyphus, Narcissus, and Odysseus, to name a few—and their plots can be easily adapted for new audiences, over and over again. This beautiful book, with more than 200 images and easy to-digest writings, unites the works of the Old Masters and contemporary notables under the themes of familiar mythologies.

One of the few books on the topic of Soviet design, this is a rich survey of the everyday items from pre-Yeltsin era Russia. Posters, games, toys, cars, and small appliances are exquisite and purposeful in design, yet quirky. As Justin McGuirk, chief curator of the Design Museum in London, writes in the foreword, “This was a country prepared to invest in the most heroic feats—a man in space—but not in everyday desires.”

At the dawn the industrial age, great swaths of populations were living in squalor and extreme poverty. In turn, both literature and art adapted to tell the stories of child laborers and dangerous working conditions— capturing these stories before the advent of documentary film. This fascinating book covers misery as a pervasive theme in early-twentieth century art.

The amount of diversity in the art world leaves something to be desired, with women and minority artists consistently under-represented. The Guerrilla Girls, Linda Nochlin, and Nan Goldin are a few of the activists featured here who are looking for change. Powerhouse curator and art writer Maura Reilly examines groundbreaking exhibitions showing how new approaches are possible.

This spirited book goes beyond interpretation and instead provides a deep dive into the lives of notable artists from the surrealist movement. The usual suspects—Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, and Francis Bacon—are given a thorough, almost scientific examination, which is not surprising since the author, Desmond Morris, is a noted zoologist and surrealist artist himself.

In 2019, the highly influential art school, the Bauhaus, will celebrate its 100th anniversary. This compendium is masterfully designed to include more than 250 photographs and detailed texts about workshops and classes offered at the school before the Gestapo shut it down for good in 1933.

During his career as a successful commercial artist in the 1950s, Andy Warhol created handmade books that he distributed to woo clients and expand his social circle. Taschen has carefully reproduced seven of these rare books, nearly replicating them—down to the paper stock, size, and format of each. These treasures are housed in a custom fold-out case.